Interactive English language quiz:

Narrative tenses : news story

Fill the gaps with a suitable form of the verb in brackets. Most of these are past simple or past perfect, some are passive and a few are other tenses.

In Nigeria, a three-year-old British girl (reunite) with her parents after being freed by kidnappers in southern Nigeria who (hold) her for four days. Margaret Hill's parents, Mike and Oluchi Hill, said she was in good health but "covered in mosquito bites".

The kidnappers (threaten) to kill the girl unless a ransom (pay) or Briton Mr Hill (take) her place. Mr Hill, an oil worker, (say) no ransom (pay). He told Sky News that his daughter (return) "in a little bit of a trance", but soon began coming back to life and talking to her mother. The child (hold) "in the bush... in some sort of hut", he said. "I don't think she had much to eat because she is hungry now."

Margaret (snatch) on Thursday morning when gunmen (smash) the window of a car driving her to school in Port Harcourt as it stood in traffic. The car's driver (stab) as he tried to protect the girl.

Her Nigerian mother, Oluchi Hill, later (say) the abductors (contact) her and (demand) an unspecified ransom for Margaret's release. The kidnappers (vow) to kill the girl unless her father, a British expatriate oil worker originally from Murton in County Durham, took her place.

Our correspondent says more than 200 hostages (take) by armed groups in the last 18 months in Nigeria, but none has ever been killed.